15 comments:

I think another reason is that peasant women, walking barefoot but traversing all manner of up-and-down countryside, had better-looking legs and the wealthier women wanted the same effect.

But there's also the line "Men's clothing no longer operated so clearly as a signifier of social class, but while these boundaries were being blurred, the differences between the sexes became more pronounced".

Given the First Clothes Horse and the rise of the Slob Culture in the hippie dippy days, I think we're going back to that.

Back when men wore knee-breeches and hose it was important to have a shapely calf and ankle. High heels help create this effect. When long pants started to come into vogue, there was much less need for uncomfortable, leg-shaping shoes.

I marvel at the things women put on their feet. The last couple of years some form of "witch shoes," as I call them (black high heeled shoes or boots with pointy toes), seem quite popular with the younger generation where I work. Some of the women have obvious difficulty walking in their high heeled/platform shoes, but the need to be 3-4 inches taller overrides the risk of a broken ankle, leg or foot problems. "Vanity, thy name is woman."

I don't know why more women don't object to all the noise high heeled shoes make when walking down a marble corridor. It's like being in a room with a bunch of demented elves nailing together dollhouses or wooden trains. I thought modern women wanted to be accepted for their brains, not their sex appeal. Yet they can't seem not to flaunt their sexuality in a business setting.

A couple weeks ago I was watching a female astronomer at a TED conference talk about the moons of Jupiter (or some such thing) but even she had to show her cleavage. Come on girls, give us boys a break. When you're taking about science, keep your boobs in your blouse.